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Celebrating individuals affected by mental illness

Courtnall brothers, left to right:
Russ, Geoff, Bruce (Doug Harrington, Special to the Star / Doug Harrington, Special to the Star)

By Jessica Wynne LockhartSpecial to the Star

Wed., June 11, 2014

When CAMH’s Transforming Lives Awards program launched in 1998, the concept was one co-chair and co-host Valerie Pringle calls “massively groundbreaking.” The awards would celebrate individuals affected by mental illness, the steps they’ve taken towards recovery, and most importantly, their fight against discrimination.

But although much has been done since then to reduce stigma, Pringle says that the power of the recipients’ stories remains just as strong as ever.

“Even though we are becoming much more aware, it’s still remarkable to get a sense of the massive effort that it takes to recover,” says Pringle. “It’s wonderful [for award recipients], who have dealt in this realm of shame, to have it turned on its head. They should be applauded for their struggle. The message to everyone, implicitly, is that recovery is possible.”

Paolo Scotti

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Although he has many things to be thankful for — a supportive family, a stable job — Paolo Scotti is most grateful for being able to start over after decades of battling depression, hallucinations and paranoia.

Surprisingly, Scotti says he’s also thankful for his schizophrenia, which he was diagnosed with 20 years ago.

“I think you have to go through the hardship and the suffering and the pain and the brokenness and the loss to get to the other side,” he explains. “That transformation makes you a new creation.”

Scotti has turned his unique perspective into a career as a mental health peer support worker at CAMH. As someone who has living experience with mental illness, he is part of an inter-professional care team that provides support to others. “Someone said recovery is about being more human and I’ve really come to treasure relationships,” he says.

Among those is the ongoing relationship he has with his physician, Dr. Ken Harrison.

“I remembered the severely fractured man I met in 1994 who couldn't complete a sentence due to a thought disorder,” Harrison wrote in his nomination letter. “I come away from meetings with Paolo puzzling as to who is caring for whom.”

Stephen Emslie

It seemed like nothing could save Stephen Emslie from himself — not a full-blown psychotic episode, not even an accidental overdose.

“Basically, I had to be pretty battered up. I had to be beaten into a state of willingness,” Emslie recalls.

A popular star student, Emslie’s family had always referred to him at the “golden boy.” He seemed to have it all, but by the time he reached his third year of university, he had developed an addiction to drugs and alcohol.

“I didn’t have a problem with alcohol or drugs,” he says. “I had a problem existing because I didn’t like myself, deep down.”

As his anxiety intensified, so did his paranoia. He became suspicious of others and believed he had powers of telepathy. After overdosing, he was admitted to an addiction program, where he found strength through speaking with recovering addicts.

But his journey is far from over. In addition to sharing his message of hope with family members of clients from CAMH’s early intervention clinic, Emslie shares his story through his music.

“I can never let up on it; I have a disease that wants me dead,” says Emslie. “My disease is doing push-ups right now in the parking lot.”

Ann Dowsett Johnston

The winner of five National Magazine Awards and the pioneer of Maclean’s ranking system for its annual guide to Canadian universities, journalist Ann Dowsett Johnston was (and still is) a dedicated professional with a supportive family. But she had a secret — one she had carried for decades. Like her mother before her, she was a high-functioning alcoholic.

“I didn’t crack up a car, I didn’t miss days at work, I won awards at work, I didn’t look like an alcoholic,” recalls Dowsett Johnston. “You don’t always have to be that person under the bridge swigging out of a brown paper bag.”

Her decision to seek help came after a drunk driver killed her cousin. Faced with the prospect of losing her son and her partner, and unable to quit on her own, Dowsett Johnston sought help.

She’s now in her sixth year of sobriety. In 2013, in addition to co-founding a national advocacy group for women and girls affected by alcohol, she published Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol.

“This is a journey not for the faint of heart,” says Johnston. “Recovery really is a remarkable way to go through life. I’ve had an extraordinary time being sober.”

Loan Van

Inside the walls of CAMH’s clinics, Loan Van offers manicures and hand massages to nervous patients. The gentle touch and sense of comfort she provides is something she lost at 16, when she left a war-torn Vietnam and her family.

With little money, she started her life anew, overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles. But the yearning for her family never went away.

“I had this illness, probably because I’d missed my mother so much and couldn’t figure out how to see my mother again,” she says. “So I wanted to die to be with her.”

After giving birth to her son, Peter, and immigrating to Canada, Van’s mental health worsened and she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She began another journey, this time towards recovery. Over two years, she was hospitalized in CAMH’s acute care ward, leaving her son in the care of neighbours and friends.

Today, a decade later, Van offers more than just comfort to the patients at CAMH. For the people with whom she works, she is living proof of recovery.

“If they ask, I tell them that I was a patient just like they are,” she says. “I’ve since recovered and now I’m working and that they can recover and be able to work like I do.”

Bruce, Geoff and Russ Courtnall

Bruce Courtnall doesn’t remember his father, Archie, as being sad.

“People loved him. He had this big booming voice. At hockey you could hear him everywhere,” he recalls.

But at night, his father would shut off and began to exhibit symptoms of depression.

“He didn’t want to go on medication; he didn’t want to go see the doctors. He was ashamed of feeling the way that he felt,” says Bruce’s older brother, Geoff.

Without the support and help he needed, Archie committed suicide at age 45, leaving his wife to care for four children — Russ, Geoff, Bruce and Cheryl — all under age 18. As the family tried to move on, Russ and Geoff established careers in the NHL.

Despite their success, the memory of their father and the loss never went away. So when the brothers learned the city of Victoria was needed funding for a mental health care centre, they organized a charity golf tournament.

In just two years, they raised $2 million — enough to build what would become the Archie Courtnall Centre for emergency psychiatric care.

Sharing their father’s story has been key in their own recovery. “It really created momentum for everyone to start talking about it,” says Bruce, “because you’re really not alone.”

Tremco Roofing Canada

In 1999, when Tremco Roofing Canada decided to launch a golf tournament, it made what to an outsider might seem like an unusual decision—it named CAMH’s child psychiatry program as the charitable recipient.

Although it may have seemed an unusual choice for a roofing company, Tremco’s manager of business development, Bill Corrigan, knew it was a perfect fit.

“We felt that mental health issues were much ignored and, like roofing, often avoided,” he says. Rather than focusing on the issue when a problem erupted, Tremco wanted to acknowledge the symptoms of problems often go unnoticed until it’s too late.

Over the last 15 years, Tremco has raised more than $550,000 for CAMH’s programs, making it the longest running third-party event in the hospital’s history.

Funds from the golf tournament, which has become an annual event, go towards supporting the children and families who are affected by mental illness. But the company’s commitment runs deeper than a yearly event — it has also partnered with CAMH to provide training and workshops for its staff on mental health in the workplace.

As the recipient of this year’s Harry and Shirley Young Corporate Award, Tremco Roofing Canada is truly a business that demonstrates leadership in fighting the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness.

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